Bill Clinton Speaks About Science And Cancer Research At Charity Event

Last night former President Bill Clinton spoke about cancer at a Manhattan event for Tina’s Wish, a foundation dedicated to research in ovarian cancer prevention and detection. He spoke for half an hour at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, mainly on progress in science, informatics and global health. He made no reference to his wife’s candidacy.

Clinton emphasized rapid advances in human genomics, and how those will benefit cancer patients. He lauded collaborative approaches in solving difficult problems of all kinds, and in ovarian cancer what he later called “the detection riddle.”

Cancer is a worldwide scourge, Bill Clinton said upon receiving the first Global Women’s Health Award from the Honorable Tina Brozman Foundation, aka "Tina's Wish." The charity promotes research in ovarian cancer, with a focus on finding methods for early detection.

Honoree and former President Bill Clinton speaks after recieving the inaugural Tina's Wish Global Women's Health Award at The Waldorf Astoria on April 14, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Tina Brozman was an accomplished lawyer and mother of three, who died from ovarian cancer in 2007 at the age of 54 years. The family lived in Chappaqua, NY. Andrew Brozman, Tina’s husband for nearly 25 years and a director of Tina’s Wish, opened the evening’s formal remarks by considering the breadth of cancer’s victims. He spoke of the magnitude of the problem, of pain and the uncalculated toll on cancer patients’ spouses and children.

Ovarian cancer affects approximately 1 in 75 women over a lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. Risk factors include genetic mutations, like BRCA-1 and -2 variants, and Lynch syndrome, having a relative with the disease, lack of bearing children and endometriosis. Though infrequent, ovarian cancer remains lethal in most cases, with a 5-year survival rate under 45 percent. According to the Centers for Disease Control, ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer-related death among U.S. women.

Clinton weighed in on the research funded by Tina’s Wish, “to work together to establish a tissue bank of ovarian tumor samples, to learn together more about the disease, the genomic variatives, its progression and responses to various therapies.” He highlighted the value of the collaboration.

There is no early detection method for ovarian cancer, he considered. “If you catch it early, it’s already got a 91 percent cure rate,” he stated. In 60 percent of people affected, the cure rate drops to 27 percent. “Obviously, if you don’t do anything besides figure out how to catch it early, you’ll raise the survival rate up to 91 percent,” he said.

Clinton reflected on cancer detection in the context of his experiences with the Clinton Health Initiative in AIDS. “We needed a delivery system that included massive testing,” he said. He spoke of developing low-cost ways to monitor patients, to see if medications were working.

He spoke about precision medicine, without using that term: “The most forward-looking cancer treatments now are relying on the individual characteristics of the tumors in question, not where they happen to be located in the body,” he said.

“It is crazy that we cannot detect this condition early,” Clinton said. He expounded further on progress in science, including nanotechnology and genomics. He anticipates medical advances that will “truly honor Tina’s wish” by curing and helping everyone, "100 percent," of those affected by ovarian cancer. “These things are going to happen in ways that take your breath away,” he said.

“You’ll be shocked when they finally figure out how to do early detection, how relatively inexpensive it will be, quickly,” Clinton said. He went on to discuss E.O. Wilson’s book, the Social Conquest of Earth, and what he sees as the uniquely human capacity for experiencing both consciousness and conscience. “We can do great things,” he said, and after some reflections on genetics added: “Once solved, it’ll turn out to be more affordable.”

Toward the end of his speech, Clinton again mentioned the benefits of early ovarian cancer detection, and said this: “Just think how you’ll feel if thanks to your contributions we solve the detection riddle, and think how you’ll feel if we don’t. When you read in the paper, as you will in the next five years, I promise you, cancer after cancer after cancer will have a 90 percent cure rate.” While Clinton’s numbers were surely figurative, his intention and optimism seemed true.

I was impressed by Clinton’s words. His confidence about the future of medicine, grounded by his personal experiences with illness, work and intellect, suggests that by giving to and investing in science, top medical care – including cancer detection and treatment – might be rendered accessible and affordable to all.

As a physician and lifelong patient, I advocate for universal access to modern and compassionate health care. Previously I worked as a blood and cancer specialist. Now I'm writing a book on cancer attitudes.